I Have HP Envy 15-J 15-j028TX and I’m planning to get an external gpu going....

[David768]

I was just wondering if my laptop supports eGPU...I also wanted to know exactly what am i going to need for this setup

[Skiiwee29]

<-- Moved to Laptops and Pre-Built Systems -->

[comicsansms]

There's hacky ways of getting an eGPU on older laptops, but really, just no.

 

It isn't a laptop at that point, and it really isn't a PC that should be used long term at that point, just a proof of concept.

[AMD A10-9600P]

Yeah don't bother, it won't be worth it. eGPUs are very expensive and you're best to save your money for an actual gaming PC or laptop. That laptop likely doesn't support Thunderbolt anyway, and even if it did, an eGPU would severely bottleneck the horrendous CPU in the laptop, and you wouldn't get anywhere near the performance you'd want.

[David768]

9 hours ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

Yeah don't bother, it won't be worth it. eGPUs are very expensive and you're best to save your money for an actual gaming PC or laptop. That laptop likely doesn't support Thunderbolt anyway, and even if it did, an eGPU would severely bottleneck the horrendous CPU in the laptop, and you wouldn't get anywhere near the performance you'd want.

 

9 hours ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

Yeah don't bother, it won't be worth it. eGPUs are very expensive and you're best to save your money for an actual gaming PC or laptop. That laptop likely doesn't support Thunderbolt anyway, and even if it did, an eGPU would severely bottleneck the horrendous CPU in the laptop, and you wouldn't get anywhere near the performance you'd want.

I was planning to use EXP GDC Dock...

[AMD A10-9600P]

18 hours ago, David768 said:

 

I was planning to use EXP GDC Dock...

Regardless, the benefits you'll get in modern tasks will be next to none. Any modern GPU will bottleneck the hell out of the CPU in that laptop, and any older GPU won't offer a good enough performance gain in modern tasks. I recommend you save your money for a more modern system, you can buy decent used laptops with dedicated GPUs.

[David768]

5 hours ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

Regardless, the benefits you'll get in modern tasks will be next to none. Any modern GPU will bottleneck the hell out of the CPU in that laptop, and any older GPU won't offer a good enough performance gain in modern tasks. I recommend you save your money for a more modern system, you can buy decent used laptops with dedicated GPUs.

Alright...Thanks for the advice.

 

[oogloog]

I'm surprised to have come across your post! I successfully did an egpu setup with a really similar model. Mine was a 15j-053cl which differs in that it doesn't have nvidia graphics. You must have the gt 740m, which I'm guessing won't be a problem since you can disable it.

 

So first of all what motivates you to want to do this? Do you have a PSU, GPU, and a monitor? Do you still want the laptop to be portable?

 

I'd love to share my experience and other things about this laptop. I'm currently replacing the old, awful LCD panel with a nice 1080p IPS model.

 

 

[Ayush Deole]

Egpu are not worth it at all you can buy a decent laptop at the price of a egpu

[David768]

On 4/28/2021 at 1:21 PM, oogloog said:

I'm surprised to have come across your post! I successfully did an egpu setup with a really similar model. Mine was a 15j-053cl which differs in that it doesn't have nvidia graphics. You must have the gt 740m, which I'm guessing won't be a problem since you can disable it.

 

So first of all what motivates you to want to do this? Do you have a PSU, GPU, and a monitor? Do you still want the laptop to be portable?

 

I'd love to share my experience and other things about this laptop. I'm currently replacing the old, awful LCD panel with a nice 1080p IPS model.

 

 

My friend will give me used gtx950 for a good price and i have a monitor i just need PSU And EXP GDC Dock and yes i have gt740m

[David768]

Just now, David768 said:

My friend will give me used gtx950 for a good price and i have a monitor i just need PSU And EXP GDC Dock

 

[oogloog]

This link will show you buying details: https://egpu.io/best-egpu-buyers-guide/#mPCIe-interface

Note that from the table, the max PCIe bandwidth we're dealing with here is only 4Gbps because we have a 4th gen Intel CPU. This is opposed to 16Gbps with a desktop motherboard, so the performance will be limited. But I don't think it's 4x slower. I ran Skyrim (not the remastered one) on high settings 1080p and got 60fps in many places with a gtx 750 ti. Also know that running games on the internal laptop screen with this egpu setup will result in 2x slower performance compared to using an external monitor.

 

I went with option 1 from the table as seen in my setup picture. For me it was cheaper since I already had a PSU, but in your case I might go with the Beast and the Dell DA-2 like from the link in that table. It will be more convenient, use less space, and may be cheaper anyway. Or get a regular ATX PSU and option 1 if you think you'll build a PC eventually.

The other picture shows the HDD cover off and the mini PCIe connector that replaces the wifi/bluetooth chip. You'll have to get a USB wifi adapter or run an ethernet cable for internet. When I did this I used a powerline ethernet adapter. The empty slot opposite of that is for an mSATA SSD, and an egpu would not work through that. If you go with the Beast then your mini PCIe connector will look a little different, like the one pictured in the Aliexpress link from option 2 of that table. I'm not sure if you'll be able to screw the connector in place because the CMOS battery is in the way of the cable. My connector has two long ends, one of which I snapped off, but even then the cable was too thick. It doesn't have to be screwed in but it's not the most secure connection. The flat Aliexpress one may be flexible enough.

 

As for hooking it up, there are plenty of good guides on Youtube such as this. You may need a on/off switch between the wall socket and the Dell PSU. In my setup I had the manually turn my ATX PSU on and off to turn off the GPU fan every time I shut down or before booting up, which was a bit annoying. Another thing is that you may have to unplug the ribbon cable for the internal display. I don't remember if I had to, but I did. In my 1st picture it goes in the little white slot on the board just right of the GPU. This would require you to unscrew the bottom panel. This in addition to the mini PCIe cable makes it pretty immobile. If you want a portable laptop again you'd have to remove the back, plug in the screen, unplug the mini PCIe cable, plug in the wifi chip if you want, and screw the back on.

 

So whether or not all this is worth the hassle is up to you, but if you're on a tight budget and this is your only computer then this an option. ***Remember to unplug the laptop power cord and battery if you do any work on the laptop.*** Let me know any questions you may have.